@GRASS-ROOTS.ORG/Who We Are

Monday, Sep 08, 2008

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Reinvesting In America:
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WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO

Robin Garr

ROBIN GARR

In 1990, award-winning news reporter Robin Garr left daily journalism to take on the challenge of seeking out the nation's most innovative grassroots organizations and the hometown heroes who are fixing what's broken on the streets where they live.

Over the next few years, working with the non-profit organization World Hunger Year (WHY), he visited hundreds of outstanding groups in all 50 states, filling hundreds of notebooks with the stories of programs that work.

In his preface to Garr's 1995 book, Reinvesting In America, author and vice-presidential adviser David Osborne wrote, "Robin Garr did what so few policy experts in America ever do. He got out of the office and went into the communities where solutions are being crafted. He spent several years traveling across America, visiting successful community organizations that ran everything from homeless shelters to job training programs. ... For those who care about the poor -- as opposed to those who simply want political credit for reforming welfare -- Reinvesting In America is an important book. If we can figure out how government can empower the grassroots, bottom-up initiatives captured here, we can make a dent in poverty."

On this Website, @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG, Garr offers the Internet community a summary of the most inspiring stories that he found in his journey for Reinvesting In America. You'll find here the stories of scores of innovative grassroots programs run by local heroes who've found effective ways to build on the strengths of their communities to make them better.

Sadly, many of these fine organizations are no longer active, and in many cases contact information has changed. It is no longer practical for us to update information on this site, but we leave the original body of information online as a way of celebrating these innovative ideas and the outstanding people who put them to work in their communities.

Please join us and read some of our stories. We hope you'll be inspired by them, and then we hope you'll decide to roll up your sleeves and get involved in your own community, be it in the U.S. or anywhere on Earth.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Want to get involved? For some specific suggestions about how you can support our work, and more important, how you can support the work of outstanding grassroots organizations in your own community, read our feature, You Can Help!

For a closer look at Garr's move from metropolitan journalism to the life of a traveling journalist covering grassroots innovation, read the Preface to his book and check out the Introduction, "Give a Man a Fish." Or if you'd like to turn to the back of the book first, have a look at his conclusions in its final chapter, "Lessons for All Americans."

Further reading? We've set up an Amazon.com bookstore to showcase a number of other books about grassroots activism and issues that we've enjoyed and can wholeheartedly recommend.